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Following a third levy defeat of the 60-40% variety, West Clermont has much to ponder going forward. The community continues to be fractured along many lines, and it was on display at this month’s board meetings. The district will be borrowing from future revenues in order to maintain its current service levels, and will have to make cuts or concessions in 2013. Continue reading →

(Editor’s Note: This is a commentary on West Clermont Schools by community member John McGraw. The piece is published in its entirety, with only two small spelling and formatting changes. If you have an article you wish to publish, please send to scschools@yahoo.com)

On November 6th, West Clermont voters overwhelmingly voted down the operating levy placed on the ballot by the West Clermont School Board. Einstein’s definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting different results. The definition of foolishness is not knowing the definition of insanity. I am very disappointed for the children of the district and for my own kids who attend West Clermont Schools. Continue reading →

The latest release of the 2012 School Report Cards is not the end of the road, but there are some interesting bits of information to gather from them. There has been debate about the accuracy and overall validity of these measuring sticks at this site, but also from the entity that puts them out. That’s not the focus of this article, as it will be brought up in the near future. Instead it’s the enormous drop in enrollment in New Richmond Schools. Continue reading →

With apologies to both Bill and Ted for the title, what education needs is a little math lesson to go with the history of information accumulated here. According to a Redstate article (yes, it’s not a neutral site), we are getting less out of our education dollars than other countries. Those countries spend a lot less to educate their population, and yet we continue to beat around the bush to this problem. More money does not equal better outcomes.

With apologies to both Bill and Ted for the title, what education needs is a little math lesson to go with the history of information accumulated here. According to a Redstate article (yes, it’s not a neutral site), we are getting less out of our education dollars than other countries. Those countries spend a lot less to educate their population, and yet we continue to beat around the bush to this problem. More money does not equal better outcomes.

It has been stated at this site many of times that the school boards in the state (and county) do not serve the mission they claim to have. The mission is to educate children on behalf of the public. However, this article seems all too familiar to what we have all experienced and been told by the district leadership in our county. Perhaps the fact that many levies are failing by large margins will clue them in that (click): THIS TYPE OF BEHAVIOR is what is causing our children’s education to be marginalized. Continue reading →

Like this:

Emails come in all the time about why certain schools are covered more than others. Some districts just have more interest or more problems, but also it’s about coverage. Unless there are enough people to attend or report on meetings, there isn’t much coverage beyond the minutia from traditional media school press releases. Enter Bethel-Tate, and moving forward there will be additional coverage and insight. Continue reading →

Like this:

This wasn’t a surprise given the nature of the allegation. Read the whole article embedded first and then finish the rest of what’s here . I hate the politics in it, as I honestly don’t care if he was a great guy to be around. What if this type of behavior happens to be the true nature of our education system and the leaders in our government. All the quotes state that he “loves the kids”, but has no problem fully lining his pockets to the point there isn’t room enough for any scruples. Had he known he was going to take the State Superintendent job, I wonder if things would have happened differently? Would there have even been any investigation had he resigned in April 2011 and taken the job with the Texas firm that August? Continue reading →

I’m not a big fan of cliché’s, but I’m not sure what would fit here anyway other than there’s smoke. The public education system in this state seems to be a hodge-podge of everything. The school funding system has a myriad of components that is driven by political and economic forces, rather than education. The Dept. of Education and Legislature provide all kinds of policies and mandates, and in many cases doesn’t fund them. Each new administration prescribes updated curriculum standards that the schools have to find additional resources to pay for (which typically means the taxpayer has to find resources). Yet, most of what we are supposed to teach hasn’t changed in centuries. Go figure that today’s 21st century education neglects the other twenty. It’s no wonder why we seem so lost. Continue reading →